authority of F. Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, that Sir John Fastolf was bred in Sir Thomas Mowbray's household. But if there is little foundation for the statement with regard to Sir John Oldcastle, there is even less, as Dr. Aldis Wright has shown, in the case of Sir John Fastolfe. CHARACTERISATION 1. The King-We have seen in Richard II. how Shakespeare leads Bolingbroke through the vicissitudes of revolt against tyranny and of exile. There also we have witnessed his triumphant return as king of England. The present play portrays the man in his maturity and at the zenith of his power. He has surmounted the early troubles of his reign; but fresh troubles are brewing in the north and once again he must harness himself to arms and battle. And he has other than political anxieties. Shakespeare shows us the deeper workings of Henry's soul, where rankles a certain remorse for his wrongs to the dead King whom he has supplanted. He sees in the wildness of his son a rod to punish his own mistreadings. His political conduct is not affected by any qualms of conscience, yet his mind is not at peace nor his heart free from self-reproach. Henry does not wholly win our esteem. He is essentially the politician. Crooked were the ways by which he climbed the throne, and in his dealings with his unruly but powerful nobles there is revealed guile as well as strength. Henry, though a man of great force of character, is a type of the ambitious man who achieves his ends by policy. He represents the politician as conceived by Bacon-strong, virtuous, even scrupulous, so far as convention demands, but not without a taint of machiavellianism; he is essentially a man of the world. He is no sentimentalist, but a practical man of affairs, who recognises that if he would wage the battle of life successfully he must needs adapt himself to the ways of the world. As we have said, he does not wholly win our esteem, but he does, perhaps, win our sympathy. Henry IV. is a sad figure. He has plucked the fruit of his ambition to find it turn to dust in his mouth. Our pity is deeply stirred by C his pathetic disappointment in his heir.1 Prince Henry, on whom all his hopes are centred, is, he thinks, a profligate, trifling away his youth in haunts of riot and dishonour with idle, base companions. Not the least pathetic lines in Shakespeare are those in which the King envies the rebel Northumberland his son.2 There is unconscious and dramatic irony in his bitter cry :— O that it could be proved That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged Then would I have his Harry, and he mine. He thinks or affects to think his son guilty of disloyalty; he is his "near'st and dearest enemy". Failing to recognise the essential truth and loyalty of the Prince, he considers him capable of cowardice and treachery, even of fighting against him under Percy's pay, "to show how much he is degenerate". The King, indeed, may not mean all he says, for, when the Prince protests his loyalty, he tells him that he shall "have charge and sovereign trust"; but his grief and disappointment are unmistakable. 2. Prince Henry.-It has been said that in the character of Henry V. Shakespeare has embodied the fullest expression of his ideal of manhood.5 Certainly he has lavished upon the character the most loving care, tracing its development with sympathetic insight and subtle art from irresponsible youth to triumphant kingship. It may seem at first sight difficult to reconcile the Prince Henry of tavern fame with the noble warrior of Agincourt, so difficult that one may be tempted to think that Shakespeare had not yet designed Henry V. when he was writing the earlier plays. On careful examination, however, it is evident that, although Shakespeare tells us much that might make us consider the Prince light and wayward, the general impression of his character, considered as a whole, is pleasing and calculated to win our esteem. I. i. 78-91, and II. ii.; also 2 Henry IV. iv. v. 60-80 and 93-138. In Henry V. Shakespeare displays consummate skill in showing the growth of the nobler elements in a character which at first appears shallow, not to say worthless. The first mention of the Prince (Richard II. v. iii. 1-22) tells us of his ill repute, and the first reference to him in this play (I. i. 78-91) presents him in an unfavourable light. Yet as soon as we meet him in I. ii. we cannot fail to be won over to sympathy. Were this not so we should reject as mere hypocrisy the apologia that comes at the end of that scene. It may be urged that this apologia is scarcely necessary, that it is even obtrusive; hypocritical it certainly is not. Even in the rollicking scene 1 on Gadshill and in the scene of Olympian laughter in the tavern (II. iv.), we love Harry for his honest humour and lighthearted fooling. His conduct may be very undignified, very unseemly in a prince and an heir to the crown of England, but is to be young and merry a sin? It may be said that the Prince was guilty of worse offences than we are actually shown on the stage, even though we see him committing highway robbery, albeit in sport. Yet the stern accusations of the king 1 are at once explained away as the tattle of "smiling pick-thanks and base newsmongers"; and, as we have already said, it is certain that the King in the heat of his correction went beyond even his own unfavourable opinion of his son's character. It is noticeable that in the next tavern scene (III. iii.) the Prince plays a less prominent part. Whilst Falstaff is repenting his ways or quarrelling with the Hostess, Prince Henry comes into the Boar's Head with instructions for the campaign. The Prince has not lost his relish for fun and frolic. He enters into the humours of the tavern as heartily as ever; but soon he turns to more serious matters. The time for action is at hand: Bardolph is despatched with a letter to Lord John of Lancaster; Peto is ordered to horse, "for thou and I have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time"; and Falstaff, for whom a charge of foot has been procured, is left in the tavern to make his peace with the hostess. When next the Prince meets his old friend it is on the road to Shrewsbury (IV. ii.). He still has a jest for old "blown Jack"; but he has few words to waste. In v. i. the Prince こ is present at a conference in his father's camp. Matters of state occupy his mind; and when Falstaff interposes an ill-timed pleasantry, he puts him down with a "Peace, chewet, peace!" Yet there is no unkindly neglect of an old acquaintance; and when they part at the end of the scene, it is with a jest and a cheery farewell. Meanwhile the Prince has shown his mettle; he has won the esteem of all, even of the enemy. With praise of Hotspur and with "a blushing cital of himself," he challenges Percy to fight single-handed with him and thus "save the blood on either side". We have forgotten his roistering and his youthful follies, gradually led as we have been to a just appreciation of his real worth. And when on the battlefield he meets the irrepressible Falstaff (v. iii.), he is incensed by Falstaff's inopportune jesting, and leaves him with a rebuke-" What, is it a time to jest and dally now?" He distinguishes himself in the battle by deeds of surpassing valour, which are crowned by his slaying the great Percy in hand-to-hand fight (v. iv.). He is modest and generous withal; and he cannot repress a sigh when he sees, as he thinks, Falstaff, his "old acquaintance," struck down by death. But his grief will soon pass, for his life and ways are gradually changing. He can, however, admit O, I should have a heavy miss of thee, If I were much in love with vanity! -v. iv. 105, 106. He is rejoiced when the "dead" Falstaff, bearing the corpse of Hotspur, comes to claim the honour that was really his And if a lie will help his friend, he is willing to confirm Falstaff's story. own. That is as far as Shakespeare carries the evolution of Henry's personality in this play; but it is impossible to appraise the Prince's character without considering the other two plays in which he appears. In the Second Part of Henry IV. it is noticeable that the Prince, although not so altered in character as not to appreciate still the pleasures of tavern life, is nevertheless only once brought on the stage with Falstaff before the parting scene in which he firmly but without unkindness banishes Sir John for ever from his sight. And even in the one tavern scene1 where they are together the Prince very soon is recalled to serious matters of state and declares himself much to blame, So idly to profane the precious time. -2 Henry IV. 1. iv. 390, 391. However, he is not yet altogether out of love with vanity, and his father is still troubled by the wildness of his ways; but when at last responsibility falls suddenly on his shoulders, we accept as a matter of course the worthy manner in which he assumes regal dignity and responsibilities. So the way is prepared for his progress in Henry V. to the sober, soldierly kingliness-relieved withal by occasional flashes of homely humour-which he sustains throughout the French campaign in which he gained a kingdom and a wife. 3. Hotspur.-Percy is the dramatic complement and setoff to the Prince. Whilst Harry Plantagenet lets the world pass, and devotes his life to barren and unworthy pleasures, apparently without ambition, Harry Hotspur is intent on winning honour and renown. Not his is the deep and subtle craft of the King or of his own father, Northumberland; his way is along the soldier's path. Brave almost to foolhardiness, his soul is single in its aim. He will not waste his time on such sentimental trifles as poetry or love. Nothing sets his teeth on edge so much as "mincing poetry";" and as for love, this is no world "to tilt with lips". He will have “ "bloody noses and crack'd crowns' and he will "pass them current too" 8 His very sleep-talk is of "all the currents of a heady fight". Hotspur's English bluntness and matter-of-factness are an effective contrast to the poetical and superstitious Celtic temperament of the Welshman, Glendower. As ambitious as Henry IV. himself, Hotspur lacks the King's patience and balance of mind. He will not see the difficulties and dangers that are set between him and his goal; or if he does see them he recks not of them. If there is danger, so much the better: 1 12 Henry IV. 1. iv. 2 III. i. 133, 134. 3 II. iii. 93-96. 4 Ibid. 52-64. |